


The Consequences of Holiday Hopping

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Genre: F/M, Halloween, Holidays, Post-Canon, Skeletons, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-05
Updated: 2012-08-05
Packaged: 2017-11-12 07:28:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/488261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten years later, Jack gets a surprising guest</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Consequences of Holiday Hopping

Jack was sitting at his desk, going through the plans for next year's Halloween, when someone knocked on the door. "Enter!" he called, glad to have a break. He hadn't heard the door scream recently, so Sally must have let them in. She was probably out in the garden, as she often was in the mornings.

A moment later a strange creature entered his lab. "Hello, Jack," he said in a deep, commanding voice.

"Hello?" This man couldn't be a Halloween Town resident, but he still struck Jack as familiar somehow. "Won't you please sit down?"

The stranger did so, and Jack found his gaze drawn to the man's unusual cloak. Colors and images swirled across it as though a secret breeze blew through the threads. Seeing that cloak sparked a memory deep within him and suddenly it hit him in a flash. "Why, you're the Narrator!" he cried.

"Indeed I am." The man chuckled. "I'm glad to know you haven't completely forgotten me over the years, Jack."

"Not at all!" Jack declared cheerfully. It might have taken a moment, but he could never forget the man who had made him the ruler of this land. "Though it's been – how many years?"

"Almost three centuries," the older being admitted.

Jack smiled. Far longer than either probably cared to remember, though Jack had been a mere sprig of a skeleton at fifty-nine when the former King had retired. "So what brings you here today?" Jack asked.

"Very serious business, actually," the Narrator replied solemnly. "I've come to deal with the issue of holiday hopping."

"But I haven't been doing that anymore!" Jack protested, completely surprised. "And I apologized to Santa! And Mrs. Claus! And the Easter Bunny! And that was almost ten years ago!"

"Ten years ago this morning," the Narrator corrected.

"Yes! So what could possibly be wrong now?" Jack demanded. He thought he had put the whole incident behind him long ago. He had been happily focused on his life in Halloween Town for several years now.

"The problem is that it was not just you," the Narrator explained. "Ten years ago, you started it when you crossed into Christmas Land. Then the Boogie Boys went to Easter Ville and Christmas Land, bringing back the Easter Bunny and then Santa. Then Santa _and_ his team returned and made it _snow_ here. Here! Do you know how many violations that is? And in one month, no less!" The Narrator sounded extremely put out.

"That does seem like a bit much," Jack admitted, "but again, that was ten years ago!"

"Yes, but that wasn't the end of it!" the Narrator exclaimed. "There have been three hundred and seventy-nine violations since then. _Three hundred and seventy-nine!_ "

"Oh!"

"That's almost forty a year! In all my time on this job there were scarcely a dozen violations – all accidents and all solitary incidents. Now you people are crossing over all willy-nilly almost every weekend!"

"Well, I certainly see how that would be a problem…" Jack began doubtfully. Honestly he didn't see much problem with it, as long as no one else was trying a hostile takeover as he once had. "But I don't understand why you are talking to me. Surely you don't think I'm trying to take over another land again?!"

"No, no," the Narrator waved aside his concern. "Though don't think I haven't noticed those trips to Valentine Village that you and Sally have _each_ made the last few years."

Jack couldn't entirely contain his smile at the memories.

"But it clearly isn't just you two," the Narrator continued. "Or even just the Halloween gang. This is clearly a cross-land epidemic. Why, the Clauses went on a tour of St. Patrick's Glen on their vacation last year!"

Hmm. That sounded like fun. But Jack knew better than to express that particular thought aloud with the Narrator in such a mood.

"This is an unmitigated disaster!"

"But why?" Jack asked before he could stop himself. It was an honest question, but he wasn't sure how receptive the Narrator would be to it in this state.

Sure enough, the man's eyes bugged out and he gaped at the Pumpkin King. "Why? WHY?! Because it is starting to affect the real world! Humans are making Christmas villages with spooky themes and putting them up for Halloween! They're making ornaments with Santa in his swim trunks!" he ranted, waving his hands agitatedly in the air. "They're creating Easter trees and chocolate Valentines eggs! And all of it is happening seasons ahead of schedule!"

"Really? I had no idea how widespread this was!" Jack exclaimed, even as his mind began to toy with the idea of making a Halloween tree next year.

"And that's why I've come to you," the Narrator finally said. "I think I have figured out a way to stop all this."

"Oh?" Jack wasn't sure he fully wanted to stop it, but he wanted to hear the plan first before he decided completely.

The Narrator nodded decisively. "Yes. I will rewind this time and return to the day that you first went through the portal tree. Except you will _not_ go to Christmas Land. I will lock the doors to you so that you cannot enter, and then none of this will have ever happened!"

"None of it?" Jack considered that. Before his trip to Christmas Land he had become listless, bored by his work. Afterwards he had found a new spark, and new ideas. And _Sally!_ Sally who was downstairs with the children right now. "Sally. Will I remember anything about her? About us?" he asked quietly.

"No," the Narrator declared. "If any of you remembered it would defeat the point of going back. The contamination would still have occurred internally."

Jack felt a stirring of doubt within. He didn't think of himself as a contamination and certainly the wonderful things he had found in Christmas Land weren't contaminating! Why that sounded so awful!

And to go back to the way he was – bored, alone, depressed? Jack just couldn't do it. And he suspected that the others felt the same way, if they had also continued to holiday hop! If all the worlds were happier now, and producing great new ideas for their holidays, then why stop now?

But on the other hand, could Jack really go against the Narrator? The one who had given him his job? Yes he could, he decided, if it was for the good of his people and those in the other lands.

Taking a deep breath, Jack did the hardest thing he had ever done, including proposing to Sally. He looked the Narrator square in the eye and firmly said, "No. I won't change it."


End file.
